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3rd International Youth Peace Conference, Strilky/Czech Republic

Children want to live in a happy family and in a peaceful world, surrounded by healthy environment – and they are ready to do something to achieve this. These are the conclusions of the 3rd International Youth Peace Conference organized by Yoga in Daily Life Youth Union, established a year ago.

The event of the International Youth Peace Conference has already become traditional and the same goes for its venue, the premises of the International Yoga in Daily Life Centre in the beautiful area of Strilky/Czech Republic. The Conference was initiated by His Holiness Mahamandaleshwar Paramhans Swami Maheshwarananda, the author of the renown System of Yoga in Daily Life. The main theme of this year's event was: "Earth is the planet of life, let us protect the life".

About 50 children and youth (from 5 to 25 years) with their parents from 12 different countries (Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Monte Negro and Serbia, New Zealand, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, USA) took an active part in the event. Additionally, the Conference was also very seriously taken by adults, who came in great numbers to listen to children's pleads. Many prominent guests appeared at the Conference and some more expressed their support, among them high representatives of Czech Republic authorities and non-governmental organizations:

Mrs. Livia Klausova, wife of the current president of Czech Republic and Mrs. Dagmar Havlova, wife of the previous president of Czech Republic. Mrs. Zuzana Paroubkova, wife of the Prime Minister of Czech Republic, Mr. Ramesh Chander, representative of Indian Embassy, Mr. Libor Ambrozek, Minister of environment, Mrs. Petra Buzkova, Minister of Education. High representatives of Yoga in Daily Life international organizations attended as well and expressed their support and admiration to the activities of the youth.

The youth presented their thoughts and ideas through drawings, poems, essays and performances of music, songs, dance and plays. Rather serious themes were addressed with simplicity and innocence innate to children, but it all resulted in very clear statements about how the world should look like and how people should be to be able to create an atmosphere of love, peace and fruitful coexistence of all living beings. And to show us, that positive ideas must be turned into practice, each of the children selected a wow for him- or herself to keep and act upon to help make the world a better place to live in.

The wows of children included: positive thinking, positive attitude towards people that are different as themselves, anger management, sorting of litter, protecting animals, cleaning the nature from garbage.

His Holiness Swamiji, the initiator and patron of the Conference, gave the closing speech and emphasized the importance of the themes the youth addressed. "Children are our future," he said, "and how our children are brought up, so the future world will be. Therefore it is very important that we give them a good example in ourselves and teach them also about the spiritual principles."